What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[senzen]

Pelikan M205 red, M... Looks orange to me, still very good looking, in perfect nick.

 

 

It was more like "there is no way I'm winning this bid, but I'd hate myself for not even trying...". A red pen speaks to me of brown ink... An orange pen... Maybe a very subdued Gulf Blue for contrast.

 

[ParramattaPaul]

55 minutes ago, essayfaire said:

Perhaps those of us with less-than-ideal handwriting take defensive measures. 

True. 

 

I will add a serif to numerals '1' to distinguish them from and sans serif 'I'.  I also know that one career field in which writing exclusively in upper case block letters was required for clarity, one had to underline the letter 'S' (S) to distinguish it from sloppily or hastily written numbers '5'.

[Estycollector]

1 hour ago, essayfaire said:

Perhaps those of us with less-than-ideal handwriting take defensive measures.  Maybe I started writing my "e"s as backwards threes so no one would mark my work as incorrectly spelled with an "I".  I don't recall this, but it would be quite plausible.  

I hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes sense. 

 

When I first got into using an FP again, I tried to improve my cursive. I even used dip pens and old Esterbrook bibs for a while ( I preferred the Falcon best). I discovered that my chicken scratch looked better than my best attempts at a proper cursive. 

[inkstainedruth]

4 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

I will add a serif to numerals '1' to distinguish them from and sans serif 'I'. 

I've started doing that too, but that a fairly recent thing for me.

I remember trying to get my dad to help me with my algebra homework, and the way I wrote "4" just drove him bonkers.  Don't remember if I did it like the typeset version (as above) or as an upside down and mirror image lowercase "h" back then but he couldn't ever figure out what I had written and I kept having to tell him "it's a FOUR!"  

Apparently he kept thinking I'd written a "9"....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mercian]

5 hours ago, senzen said:

Pelikan M205 red, M... Looks orange to me, still very good looking, in perfect nick.

 

 

It was more like "there is no way I'm winning this bid, but I'd hate myself for not even trying...". A red pen speaks to me of brown ink... An orange pen... Maybe a very subdued Gulf Blue for contrast.

 

That’s a very handsome pen you have there 👍

 

Personally, in a brightly-coloured pen, I like to use the darkest black ink that I can lay my hands on.

 

I know from experience that the nib/feed of an M205 is wet enough (& easy enough to clean) to be able to use heavy iron-gall ink in it (I put ESSRI through my own).

So, I get to enjoy the contrast with the pen, the ‘fun’ of watching the ink change colour on the page, and the lovely rippling shading & je ne sais quoi that iron-gall inks provide 😊

 

If you fancy using a subdued blue in this pen, perhaps you might like to try Pure Pens Barafundle…

[Runnin_Ute]

5 hours ago, senzen said:

Pelikan M205 red, M... Looks orange to me, still very good looking, in perfect nick.

 

 

It was more like "there is no way I'm winning this bid, but I'd hate myself for not even trying...". A red pen speaks to me of brown ink... An orange pen... Maybe a very subdued Gulf Blue for contrast.

 

Toledo Red. Like the roof tiles....

[USG]

16 hours ago, Mercian said:

 

⬆️ This! 😁

 

My handwriting has never been the sort that anyone would wish to display as an example of ‘best practice’, so I am another person who crosses their ‘7’. I also cross my ‘z’ & ‘Z’ (to distinguish those from my ‘2’).

 

 

 Good Idea.  I also cross my 7s and now I'll cross my Zs 👍🙂

[Misfit]

Does a Pilot Hi-Tech-C 1000 multi pen plus refills count?  Not a fountain pen, but I did mostly impulsively order them. 

[tde44x]

Vintage Sheaffer snorkel with triumph PdAg broad nib, statesman model.

[senzen]

14 hours ago, Mercian said:

 

If you fancy using a subdued blue in this pen, perhaps you might like to try Pure Pens Barafundle…

 

Thank you, that's an interesting ink; I'm kinda liking Gulf Blue with it which is too light for many pens.

 

[Penguincollector]

I need that Gulf Blue, and the Deep Sea Green, and and and…. 
Also here to confess that I gave in and bought a lil’  turquoise pocket Platinum that has been on my watch list forever. Pictures in the “waiting for the mail” thread. @senzen inspired me to use a reddish ink in it when it gets inked (there’s a long queue after Xmas). 

[essayfaire]

On 1/7/2023 at 1:19 PM, Mercian said:

 

⬆️ This! 😁

 

My handwriting has never been the sort that anyone would wish to display as an example of ‘best practice’, so I am another person who crosses their ‘7’. I also cross my ‘z’ & ‘Z’ (to distinguish those from my ‘2’).

 

 

As do I, though personally I don't think my "z"s look like 2s!

[essayfaire]

23 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

True. 

 

I will add a serif to numerals '1' to distinguish them from and sans serif 'I'.  I also know that one career field in which writing exclusively in upper case block letters was required for clarity, one had to underline the letter 'S' (S) to distinguish it from sloppily or hastily written numbers '5'.

That makes sense.  It always drives me nuts when typing on a computer that many company's default fonts are "I"s like this. which I find indistuishable from a lower-case L or a one.

[ParramattaPaul]

47 minutes ago, essayfaire said:

That makes sense.  It always drives me nuts when typing on a computer that many company's default fonts are "I"s like this. which I find [undisguisable] from a lower-case L or a one.

I believe there is a society wide trend to move away from serif fonts particularly on websites and the internet in general. Whether this is a perception that serif fonts are harder to read is an unanswered question.  However, a quick look at newly released books tells us that publishers continue to use serif fonts.  I suspect that businesses choose their preferred fonts at the whim of someone on high.

[txomsy]

Most likely. I seem to remember that readability studies (very long ago) showed that serif, fixed-size (all letters the same width) fonts are easier to read as the eye can jump uniformly from one to the next and predict where each letter will be. But these look boring, which is not what marketing people on the lookout for fancy distinguishing looks demand.

 

I suppose it is tied with the diminished training in handwriting: if your writing skill are reduced, serifs and uniform letters take more work, so you end up using more non-serif non-uniform writing and end up thinking it the best for that is the only you can use and are familiar with. Then your "deviant" aesthetics take precedence over hard facts and you look for what to you seems "fancy" and "normal".

 

That and coupled with the awful choice of Microsoft to use Arial as the default font in Windows, possibly to force users to buy better fonts, but ignoring that most computer users do not know or do not care or simply do not want to spend money on fonts, finally leading them to just use that awful default. Not to forget that the original Apple Macintosh also used non-serif fonts for menus and the computer interface.

 

Actually, I currently have a Medline page open on another window and article text is all with serifs. Programmatic elements are not. Which tells me that programmers do not know/care, but those making decisions about the text to be read, do.

[effrafax]

14 hours ago, essayfaire said:

That makes sense.  It always drives me nuts when typing on a computer that many company's default fonts are "I"s like this. which I find indistuishable from a lower-case L or a one.

 

That's why there are specialised fonts for computer programmers especially because of this problem.  They need to be able to easily distinguish between lower case 'l', upper case 'I' and digit '1', for example, otherwise the code won't compile correctly, or worse, compile but have hard to trace bugs because of incorrect characters.

 

[TitoThePencilPimp]

17 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

I need that Gulf Blue, and the Deep Sea Green, and and and…. 
Also here to confess that I gave in and bought a lil’  turquoise pocket Platinum that has been on my watch list forever. Pictures in the “waiting for the mail” thread. @senzen inspired me to use a reddish ink in it when it gets inked (there’s a long queue after Xmas). 

I have 4 gfv inks (Incuding the ones you mentioned). They were purchased 3 years ago, and have not been opened. Maybe one day.I have a rule where I only open 4 bottles of ink, and fully use them, before I open 4 more. I use about 150 mL of ink every 3-5 months. I may give Gulf Blue a try once my current rotation is done

 

(Akkerman 7,10,SBRE, and Yama-Budo.

[Penguincollector]

@TitoThePencilPimpyou have an amazing amount of restraint. The only unopened bottles I have are inks that I have more than one bottle of. 

[Gloucesterman]

8 hours ago, txomsy said:

That and coupled with the awful choice of Microsoft to use Arial as the default font in Windows, possibly to force users to buy better fonts, but ignoring that most computer users do not know or do not care or simply do not want to spend money on fonts, finally leading them to just use that awful default.

Although Microsoft uses "Arial" as a default font, changing it to one of the many other included (free) fonts is a straightforward process. A simply "help" query within "Word" or a simple Internet search  will also display instructions on how to make the change.

 

Also note, IIRC, using the Arial font uses 40% more ink than other fonts when one actually prints out pages. The printer companies win because you use more ink; you lose because it costs more for that ink.

 

Finally, most printers have a "draft" setting in the "setting" for their printers. In many cases this setting is indistinguishable (for review purposes) from the "default/best" setting on items used for personal use -imho. This setting uses much less ink and can also be set as a default setting for all of your printing. It's simple to change to the "Best" setting if you want a business/professional quality output. BTW, I am referring to text output only, not images or graphics.

 

Many printers are relatively inexpensive because the manufacturers make their real profit/money on the proprietary ink cartridges which you are forced to purchase.

[Mercian]

11 hours ago, effrafax said:

That's why there are specialised fonts for computer programmers especially because of this problem.  They need to be able to easily distinguish between lower case 'l', upper case 'I' and digit '1', for example

Should anyone like to know of a typeface that embodies such distinctions, I have for many years used ‘Palatino’ and/or ‘Palatino Linotype’ for personal/work product.

 

I far prefer it to ‘Times New Roman’, and I also prefer its punctuation marks over those of most of the widely-available serif fonts.

 

But I can’t say whether or not it - like Arial - uses up one’s ink at a greater rate than other typefaces do.